Bacon's Rebellion

Democracy Thrives in Sunlight

Food Insecurity: Virginia Must Be Doing Something Right. But What Is It?

—

by

James A. Bacon
in ,

Food insecurity in the United States. Source: Feeding America.
Food insecurity in the United States. Source: Feeding America.

by James A. Bacon

Question: Why does Virginia have the third lowest rate (tied with Massachusetts) of “food insecurity” among the 50 states? Given the Old Dominion’s low rates of unemployment and poverty and relatively high incomes, one would expect Virginians to be less at risk for going hungry. But look at the map above, based on Feeding America’s 2013 “Map the Meal Gap” project. There must be more to the story than the usual socio-economic factors….

Food insecurity is lower in Virginia counties than counties across the state line with comparable racial and socio-economic characteristics. Thus, the poor, predominantly white Appalachian counties of western Virginia have lower rates of food insecurity than the Appalachian counties of Kentucky, Tennessee, North Carolina and West Virginia. Likewise, the poor, largely African-American counties in Virginia’s Southside tend to have less food insecurity than their counterparts in North Carolina.

Food security among children.
Food security among children.

The same pattern can be seen in food security for children, who live disproportionately in poor families. Indeed, eastern Virginia (and Maryland’s D.C. suburbs) stand out as one of three pockets nationally — the others are North Dakota and New Hampshire/Massachusetts — where children suffer the least food insecurity.

There appears to be something unique about Virginia, perhaps something arising from its policies and/or institutional arrangements. What that uniqueness might be, I don’t know.

Feeding America’s methodology adjusts for regional variations in the cost of food, so that’s not a factor. The report mentions Virginia only in passing:

Most states have counties where … the majority of food insecure people are likely ineligible for any federal food assistance. For example, there are 21 counties in the Commonwealth of Virginia where a majority (50% or more) of food insecure individuals are estimated to have incomes too high to be eligible for any assistance programs (above 185% of poverty)…

Lower-income households in highly affluent jurisdictions such as Northern Virginia are at greater risk. Because their incomes are high by national standards, they they don’t qualify for federal assistance. But the high cost of living in affluent localities may force difficult trade-offs between rent, transportation, food and other necessities.

“Loudoun, Virginia, has a lower child food insecurity rate (10%) than the national average,” observes the report. “There are an estimated 9,200 food insecure children, 72% of whom live in households with incomes greater than 185% of poverty.”

The implication: Virginia would have an even lower incidence of food insecurity if some counties weren’t so darned prosperous (and expensive) that thousands don’t qualify for food stamps.

That phenomenon makes Virginia’s low food-insecurity rate all the more difficult to explain. Why is the overall rate so low? We must be doing something right. If only we knew what it was!

Share this article

ADVERTISEMENT

(comments below)

ADVERTISEMENT

(comments below)

Comments

8 responses to “Food Insecurity: Virginia Must Be Doing Something Right. But What Is It?”

  1. larryg Avatar
    larryg

    Virginia has a real statewide food bank infrastructure:

    http://feedingamerica.org/foodbank-results.aspx?state=VA

    and the neat thing is – it’s a true partnership between govt, business and volunteers.

    One of the things that rankles me is the lack of visibility and appreciation of a significant number of people who volunteer – in things like food banks, manning the polls, helping people with taxes, giving them rides to medical appointments, etc.

    and you cannot accomplish this without people working collectively together in a governance framework.

    for instance, the food banks and pantries reference govt databases to assure that their clients are truly in need … that takes both volunteers and government.

    when people volunteer to do taxes, it takes the support and assistance of the government…yes, that nasty IRS…actually helps to support a network of volunteers who help people do their taxes.

    the lady that cannot drive that needs to get to the doctor – gets a volunteer and that volunteer is provided with govt liability insurance to protect them if there is an accident..

    these are just a few… the schools often have a large number of volunteers that help with everything from tending a class while the teachers go to the bathroom or eat lunch to helping individual kids with reading.

    We have a large, large number of volunteers and the food pantries are an example – and it results in meaningful benefits.

  2. Ghost of Ted Dalton Avatar
    Ghost of Ted Dalton

    I agree with larryg.

    At least some aspect of this is the amazing nature of Virginia’s food pantries. I’ve volunteered in this state and another state. And let’s just say Virginia’s blows the doors off of the other state. The food bank I volunteered at was highly organized and efficient.

    Whereas the organization I volunteered at in another state was consistently inefficient in its use of volunteers and distribution of food.

  3. Darrell Avatar
    Darrell

    Maybe people are too proud to ask for assistance? I remember back in the commodities days the Hillbilly town folks used to say that someone had to be in really bad shape, or had no pride, if they asked for more than a block of cheese. Are those kinds of people still around in this give away society? Nearly every kid I knew loved that cheese.

  4. larryg Avatar
    larryg

    Yes. When you work on pantry day – you see it in their eyes and in discussions with them. There are always a few with their hands out but the majority of them are hurting and hurt and one pantry I’m familiar with operates one day every two weeks and they get one grocery bag of stuff, some frozen marked down meat, out of date bread and sometimes a small amount of produce and a USDA box (about 5 canned goods) (if they qualify) and ironically a box from Food for Life (if they qualify).

    Look up Food for Life and see who operates it – interesting.

  5. crb Avatar
    crb

    Larry is correct: public/private partnerships have strength in proven ways that reflect best practices when these entities work together. They use existing mechanisms to streamline and create delivery of services . A significant contributing factor is access. There are many overlaying and underlying reasons why barriers exist for the poor; however, access is and will always be the most profound. It doesn’t do anyone a bit of good to have services provided but people have no way to access those services. Richmond’s food distribution is a great example of how well a coordinated system can provide access. There are food pantries in every zip code (including neighborhoods in which no one would think there would necessarily be a need). Also while they work independently to meet the needs of their own clients, they also coordinate with the regional food bank.
    Another factor is that a great number of these pantries are in churches (I don’t know the statistics). This also breaks down the psychological and social barriers for people. (As I said – lots of overlaying/underlying factors).

    It doesn’t answer the question about why Virginia does it well and some other states do not, but I sure am glad we do it well. A number of questions pop into my mind when I look at the map: three quick ones are 1) what is our percentage of rural poor population versus urban poor; 2) does Virginia’s rural poor have easier access, given our transportation infrastructure (I don’t mean simply roads); and 3) does Virginia’s poor have social cohesion more than other states (are they ‘less excluded’)?

    1. larryg Avatar
      larryg

      I volunteer are a rural/suburban pantry where access is by largely by car. The cars are usually long in the tooth and many have 2-3 people with the trunk and other space filled with groceries.

      and I’ll add something I’ve been adding to other threads and that is the predominate anti-govt, govt-is-incompetent, wasteful, bad, bad, bad narrative that seems to underlie the narrative in play by many these days.

      They focus on the failures and ignore when it does work well and the food pantry system is – for any who actually are involved – a true partnership where the govt via the USDA and other agencies works with Corporations like Ford and Walmart to provide trucks and out-of-date food to a central warehouse operated as a non-profit business and then to the field pantries that are in almost every case that I’m familiar with – 100% volunteer operations staffed by people who believe in collective action and government.

      but if you listen to the anti-govt boo birds – everything the govt touches is crap.

      final comment – on the (what I think) is the silly idea of food “desserts”.

      These pantries primarily deal in canned and boxed goods – and virtually all of it is nutritious. Some produce is available but the problem with produce is that by the time the stores are done with it – it’s pretty much not useable anyhow.

      but if you focus only on the produce and not the boxed and canned food that is also nutritious then you get (I believe) – derailed.

      Food pantries show that volunteer organizations can set up de-facto food “cooperatives”. In other words, it does not have to be JUST for the needy. It COULD be an operation that serves the “underserved” also if we continued the cooperative-centralized approach instead of having 14 different independent “charitable” efforts essentially competing for scarce resources – like volunteers and donations from corporate, etc.

      I’m not advocating one central agency – just pointing out that we have a lot of duplication of services that if better coordinated and connected could stretch the limited resources much more effectively, reach more people, be more effective.

  6. DJRippert Avatar
    DJRippert

    Leadership?

    There are apparently seven food banks. It seems that five food bank areas in Virginia stand well above our neighbors. My guess is that those five food banks are well led.

    The real news story here may be that the actions of a handful of leaders can make such a difference.

    Maybe there’s something besides leadership at play but I’d look long and hard at the leaders.

    Why is Apple so successful compared to many other large technology companies? Apple has no monopoly on capital, no lock on engineering talent, no “special algorithms” that are protected by patent. They are just well led. Or, they were well led during Steve Jobs lifetime. We’ll see how things pan out now that Mr. Jobs has passed ad astra.

    I think you guys are being too wonky about this.

  7. larryg Avatar
    larryg

    re: a handful of leaders. people that are committed to a goal don’t care what “color” you are in terms of govt, corporation or volunteer.

    I don’t care that some of the food that gets distributed is USDA or hare Krishna or that it comes from the Church outreach. Once, it’s in the grocery bags and boxes – it has no identifying marks on it other than it’s “food” and the people that are getting it are grateful to get it and the people bagging it and distributing it think it’s a good thing – even if the govt has some hand in it.

    you can take that approach whether you are in law enforcement or education or a library or anything that serves a legitimate purpose that does help people who need it.

    I’m a strong believe in local community action rather than top-down govt but I’d be a fool to say that getting govt out of that loop would result in more/better benefits to people.

    It’s won’t. It will result is a harder task with less people getting help.

    that’s the reality and it’s one the ideologues don’t seem to care about – but I do.

    we have too many boo-birds and not enough of good old fashioned community activism.

    get your butt out into your community and find out where help is needed – and do it and stop complaining about govt or at least – get your butt out and get involved in your local community so you EARN THE RIGHT to complain about govt.

    when someone actually volunteers in their community and has a complaint, I’m much more likely inclined to listen because they probably do want to improve something rather than blame something.

Leave a Reply

Read More